


Let's Play 20 Questions

by GettheSalt



Series: About Holidays [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Domestic, Birthday, M/M, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 13:37:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5667982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GettheSalt/pseuds/GettheSalt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most people don’t generally endeavor to spend their birthdays at an adoption agency being grilled about every aspect of their life, but, then again, Grant and Leo are far from being ‘most people’.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let's Play 20 Questions

“Are you sure you want to do this, today?”

Leo heard the words leaving his mouth, and the second they did, he knew that they were redundant. There was no point in asking what he was asking, because he already knew the answer. Regardless of the day of the week, or month, or _year_ , Grant was going to want to do this. That's what they had discussed, a week ago.

“Just because it's my birthday...” Grant started, shifting under the covers. Leo pulled back, letting him move and get comfortable before he settled in again. “Doesn't mean I don't want to go and have a meeting that could determine how the rest of this year goes.”

Leo snorted, lifting his head again to give Grant a half-hearted glare. “You're making it sound like if it doesn't go well, you're going to be crushed for the rest of the day.”

Grant grinned, and shrugged against the pillows. “I might be. But, see, I _know_ it's going to go well.”

“Uh huh.” Leo settled in again, tapping Grant's chest lightly, watching it rise and fall with his breaths. “And you're so positive and building yourself up because...?”

“Because it's my birthday.”

Leo grinned, unable to keep it held down for long. Maybe it was a bad idea for the two of them to get their hopes up, maybe the meeting would go terribly, and they wouldn't walk out with the positive, happy feeling they had now. But it was so hard not to be optimistic and hopeful when Grant was this relaxed and happy about what was coming. After months of fighting to come to the same agreement – _we want a child_ – and weeks of dull heartbreak after the last near adoption had failed – it had made for a bleak Thankgiving – the conversation they'd had on New Year's Eve had both of them feeling in high spirits. Leo wasn't willing to let that go. Not yet. Not if they were both optimistic and felt like they had a shot, today.

“And everything goes your way on your birthday?”

Grant's hand trailed down his back, tracing idle designs. “That's right.”

 

 

 

The adoption agency was always so clean, which, Leo suspected, was a good thing. It made sense, to have a business like this be presented with a front that it was neat and organized, and well run. The tidiness of the place definitely gave off that vibe. It just had the secondary effect of making Leo worry that they weren't put together enough, or that they weren't going to be giving off the right vibe, the proper 'we will be good, loving parents' vibe. Even with the fact that they had both dressed in suit pants and button down shirts with ties. He supposed that was the nervousness taking hold. Better that it do it in that way, than do it by making him shaky and weepy.

That would probably be bad, when they were about to interview with the mother for their potential child.

Their case worker came into the waiting room, all smiles. Rhonda was a beanpole of a woman, nearly as tall as Grant, with wispy honey blonde hair, big brown eyes, and a smile that just made you _trust_ her. Leo was absolutely certain that if the news that their last adoption had fallen through had come from anyone else, he would have been a lot more immediately devastated than he was, thinking it was more about _them_ than about the mother changing her mind for her own personal reasons relating to wanting a child.

“Leo, Grant,” She greeted them, shaking both of their hands in turn. “Nice to see you both, today. Oh, and Grant, happy birthday!”

Grant smiled, glancing Leo's way for a second. Grant's birthday was on their paperwork, of course, but Leo had told her, when she'd called to book the interview, that today happened to also be Grant's birthday. It was probably what had her remembering, now. “Thanks, Rhonda.”

“Any plans for tonight?” She asked, waving them back into the meeting rooms, her bracelets clinking against her silver watch band. “I know it's a weeknight, but...”

“Just dinner.” Grant answered, and Leo reached over for his hand, lacing their fingers together. “Leo and I. Nothing too fancy, but that's how we like it. I'm getting too old for anything too intense.”

“Oh, pssh!” Rhonda stood aside and gestured into a room for them, waiting while they stepped through. “You're nowhere near close to too old, young man. Once you get to be my age, then we can talk about you being too old.”

Laughing, Leo nudged Grant. “See? Rhonda doesn't want to hear your 'I'm getting old talk' either.” He said, grinning up at his husband, before he noticed that the young woman who might choose them to adopt her baby was already seated in the room. “Oh, I'm sorry. We're being...” Leo pulled his hand from Grant's, leaning on the meeting table to offer it to her. “Rude. Hi, I'm Leo.”

The woman looked like she couldn't be much over the age of 22. Her long, curly brown hair was tied back from her face, and her green eyes watched them from behind glasses. She couldn't have been very tall, when she was standing, but she was solidly built, clearly fit. She wasn't alone, either.

Next to her sat a young man with close cropped blonde hair and blue eyes, a dusting of freckles across his face, and the hint of a tan. One look at his hands confirmed it for Leo. This guy worked outside, regularly.

“Nice to meet you, Leo, and please, don't apologise.” The woman said, smiling brightly. “You two are the first couple we've met today who aren't stiff and trying to pretend they're uptight, and picture perfect. I'm Alicia. This is Nolan.”

The young man leaned forward, gripping Leo's hand in a tight handshake and giving him a grin. “Nice to meet you, Leo.”

“Good to meet you both.” Grant said, leaning across the table to shake first Nolan's, and then Alicia's hands, before they pulled out their chairs, and sat. Rhonda made herself comfortable at the end of the table, and shuffled some papers, handing fresh forms to Nolan and Alicia.

“You two know the process by now.” She said, with a sympathetic smile, before she looked to Leo and Grant. “You two are the fifth interview they've had today.”

Leo swallowed, thinking about that. They were interview five, out of how many? He couldn't think about it like that, but he was. Alicia and Nolan had every right to make the decision that they felt was best, but he couldn't help feeling a spark of competitiveness. He knew that Grant had to be feeling it too.

“Five.” He said. “That's a lot.”

Alicia laughed. “Yeah, but we asked for it. I'd rather have all the information at once so we can make our decision and go from there. I don't want to spread it out too much and forget how I felt about one couple over another, because they were a month before the most recent one, you know?”

“That's fair.” Grant agreed. “I'd probably want to do it that way, too.”

“Plus, these chairs aren't too uncomfortable.” Nolan added. “So it's not too much of a hardship.”

They all shared a laugh, before Rhonda gave Alicia and Nolan an encouraging nod.

The interview was going to start.

“All right.” Alicia said, uncapping her pen. “We might as well get down to it. Tell me a little about yourselves. What do you do for a living?”

Leo looked at Grant. “Do you want to start?”

“I can.” Grant agreed, straightening in his chair, a little. “I work for the FBI.” As it had before, that was met with the smallest of eye widening from both the people across from them. It tended to have that effect even when they _weren't_ interviewing to adopt a child. “Not in the field. I'm an instructor. I teach FBI and law enforcement officials from all over the country on IED and bomb tactics. Basically when you have a bomb squad show up for anything, they're the ones that I train.”

“Thanks... really impressive, man.”

Grant smiled at Nolan. “It's all right. I like teaching, and for the most part they're guys who know that they need to sit down and learn what I'm teaching, because they have to take people's lives in their hands.”

Alicia nodded. “So you already handle teaching and making sure things are in order and controlled.”

“You could put it that way, yeah.” Grant agreed. Alicia nodded again and wrote something down. Leo did his best not to try to make it out, across the table, and waited for her to look his way, for his answer.

“How about you, Leo? What do you do?”

Leo smiled. “Well, Grant works for the FBI. I work for NASA.”

Alicia whistled, low. “I'm not going to lie, you two have pretty impressive resumes.”

Leo laughed, with Grant, and shrugged. “We aimed high, I guess.” He cleared his throat. “I'm an engineer, one of the best in the world, actually.” He didn't need to look over to see Grant shaking his head and smiling. “He's laughing, but he knows it's true. Anyway, NASA brought me on to help design the machinery and such that they require for their space missions. I work at the office but they usually allow me to work from home, because the satellite office pales in comparison to the workshop that we have in our basement.”

Alicia was staring at them. So was Nolan.

Leo fidgeted, slightly, and Grant reached over, under the table, to squeeze his knee.

“You two are...” Nolan shook his head. “FBI and NASA. That's... damn impressive. It pays well?”

“Very.” Grant answered, while Leo let out the breath he'd been holding. He'd been terrified, for a second, that they were going to be interrogated, Alicia and Nolan convinced they were lying. Leo really was just that good, Grant really was just that skilled. There was a reason SHIELD had brought them on, and been reluctant to let them go. “And we have a stable savings account, for emergencies, as well as, obviously, college funds and whatnot.”

Alicia was writing again.

“Pets?” Nolan asked.

“We have a dog.” Leo answered. “Scout. He's just a little over a year old, now. Very well trained, Grant made sure of it.”

“I _love_ dogs.” Alicia said, grinning brightly. “What breed?”

“He's a Chinook.” Leo answered, while Grant pulled out his phone. “They're a pretty uncommon breed. We happened to find some in New York when we lived out there, just before we moved to Washington.” Grant passed his phone across the table. On the screen was the photo that normally served as his phone's wallpaper. It had been taken that summer, and in it, Leo and Scout were in the back yard, Leo on his knees, Scout on his hind legs with his front paws on Leo's shoulders, nose buried in Leo's hair.

“Oh, he's beautiful.” Alicia breathed, picking up the phone. “Wow.”

“Like a mix between a shepherd and a golden, almost.” Nolan commented, looking over. “Good temperament?”

“Great temperament.” Grant said with a nod. “Very obedient, good with kids, protective. He's a good dog.”

Alicia passed the phone back. “That's good. I find that big dogs are, like that. It's the smaller dogs...” She made a face, shaking her head. “Anything smaller than a yorkie annoys me. They're so yappy. And bitey.”

Grant nodded, sagely. “Exactly. I'm not a huge fan of little dogs. You can't really train them to do anything.”

That went off on a tangent about dogs, for a few minutes, before Rhonda interrupted.

“I'm sorry, but I don't want to run over.” She said, with a small smile. “Should we continue?”

“Oh, of course.” Alicia reshuffled the papers. “Just, you know. Got to talking about dogs, and I can't stop.”

“She does that.” Nolan added, and got elbowed in the side, not hard, for it, making him laugh.

The interview went on with fairly standard questions. Where did they live, what did they drive, how did they eat, what was an average day for them, an average week? Who was their immediate family, what was their neighbourhood like, how where the schools, and parks? What did they make in a year, did they like to travel, and where?

The interview went on for a long while, but it wasn't tense, and it wasn't unpleasant. It was a nice change from some of the interviews that they'd done, and by the time they were winding down, Leo found himself totally relaxed in his chair, laughing and leaning on Grant, answering and expanding on questions with little anecdotes, and listening closely to the things that Alicia and Nolan shared.

The interview felt like it had gone very, very well. Leo could tell that Grant felt the same, by the way he was talking, and laughing, animated in the way he spoke with his hands.

“Well... I think we're officially out of questions.” Alicia laughed. “Which means, what questions do you have for us? I know that you've been given our files to look over, so you know that neither of us are heavy drinkers, or drug users. But, of course, I mean,” She raised a hand, blowing out a breath. “I'm totally up to answer the medical questions.”

“I think we're...” Leo looked up at Grant, confirming with him. “Good on the medical stuff. If I can ask... Why do you want to give the baby up?”

Alicia looked at Nolan, and for a second, Leo thought he'd pushed too far, and damned their chances. Then, he remembered that this was an adoption interview, and they couldn't have been the first couple to ask that question. Alicia didn't look upset, either, and neither did Nolan.

“We made a mistake.” Nolan said, simply. “I'm not going to sugarcoat it, because I think you guys will be good with the blunt truth. You know when you think 'well, it's fine, this time'?” He paused, looking between them. “All right, so, I guess it would be, uh, different, for you two...”

Grant nodded, grandly, and Leo grinned. “A little bit.”

“Ohh, I bet.” Alicia agreed with a little smirk.

“But, you know, we thought, yeah, we've been with only each other for years, we know we're clean, and it's a one in a million chance, it's fine this one time. Of course, it's that one time that it probably would have been best to use a rubber. We had other options, but, neither of us is really in the place to raise a kid, right now.”

“I don't even want kids until we're both through with school, and for me, that's another long while.” Alicia said. “I'm going through accounting, right now. Nolan's doing veterinary, and doing work term on a horse ranch right now.” She smiled, softly. “We're not in the place to raise a kid, and I think that maybe it's best if, right now, we use this as a chance to give another couple something they might not be able to get, on their own.”

Leo's chest felt tight, while he nodded.

“That's really mature of you. And good of you, especially to go through all of this, in order to do that.” Grant said. “It can't be easy, if you're doing accounting at the same time.”

“Between you and me,” Alicia started, running her hand over her gently swollen belly. “I think the accounting is a lot harder than this.”

The interview didn't last long, after that. They shook hands, and Alicia promised that they would make their decision in the next few weeks. It would be a long wait, but it would be worth it.

And it was absolutely worth it when they left the adoption agency, and Leo turned to Grant to see him grinning brightly.

“You think it went well.”

“It went _so_ well.” Grant said. “I can feel it. It's that gut feeling that Skye's always going on about.” His hand slid into Leo's, and squeezed, gently. “I don't want to get our hopes up, because they might not choose us, but...”

“We've got a good shot.” Leo filled in, as they approached Grant's Charger. “A really, really good shot.”

“Exactly.” Grant agreed, leaning down to kiss him.

Leo kissed him back, lingering, using his free hand to pull Grant that little bit closer before he pulled away with a smile. “I think this has been a pretty good birthday activity, huh?”

“Oh, I think so.” Grant smiled down at him, looking him over in a way that made Leo feel warm to the core. “You know what else I think? I think you were right. This is going to be a good year.”

Leo snorted, leaning up for one more quick kiss. “Of course I was right. I'm your husband, Grant.” He pulled the car door open. “I'm _always_ right.”

 


End file.
